System, method and storage medium for providing data caching and data compression in a memory subsystem
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsKevin C. Gower, Mark W. Kellogg, Warren E. Maule, Thomas B. Smith, III, Robert B. Tremaine
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Abstract
A cascaded interconnect system including a memory controller, one or more memory modules, an upstream memory bus and a downstream memory bus. The one or more memory modules include a first memory module with cache data. The memory modules and the memory controller are interconnected by a packetized multi-transfer interface via the downstream memory bus and the upstream memory bus. The first memory module and the memory controller are in direct communication via the upstream memory bus and the downstream memory bus.
Claims16
A cascaded interconnect system comprising:
- a memory controller for generating data read requests, the controller operable with indeterminate data response times;
- one or more memory modules for processing the data read requests, each memory module including one or more memory devices, wherein at least one of the memory modules includes a data compression module for compressing and decompressing at least a subset of the data read from and written to at least a subset of the one or more memory devices;
- an upstream memory bus;
- and
- a downstream memory bus, wherein the memory modules and the memory controller are interconnected by a packetized multi-transfer interface via the downstream memory bus and the upstream memory bus, and data responses to the data read requests accessed via the data compression module include tag information to correlate the data responses to the data read requests.
A cascaded interconnect system comprising:
- a memory controller for generating read data requests, the controller operable with indeterminate data response times;
- one or more memory modules each including a plurality of corresponding memory devices, wherein at least one of the memory modules includes a data compression module for compressing and decompressing at least a subset of the data stored on the corresponding memory devices on the memory module;
- an upstream memory bus;
- and
- a downstream memory bus, wherein the memory modules and the memory controller are interconnected by a packetized multi-transfer interface via the downstream memory bus and the upstream memory bus, and the memory controller utilizes a read data tag on data read requests sent via the downstream memory bus and the read data tag on data return results received via the upstream memory bus to match the data read requests with the data return results.
A method for providing data compression in a memory system, the method comprising:
- receiving a request at a selected memory module to read data at a specified data address, the request from a memory controller in a cascaded memory system and the selected memory module one of one or more memory modules included in the cascaded memory system;
- determining if the data is compressed;
- decompressing the data if it is determined to be compressed;
- and
- transmitting tag information along with the data to correlate the data to the request if the data was determined to be compressed.
A storage medium encoded with machine readable computer program code for providing data caching in a memory subsystem, the storage medium including instructions for causing a computer to implement a method comprising:
- receiving a request at a selected memory module to read data at a specified data address, the request from a memory controller in a cascaded memory system and the selected memory module one of one or more memory modules included in the cascaded memory system;
- determining if the data is compressed;
- decompressing the data if it is determined to be compressed;
- and
- transmitting tag information along with the data to correlate the data to the request if the data was determined to be compressed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.